/srg/ Shadowrun General

Reaction is core stat. Literally everything you can do is reaction. Get that shit. Do everything in your power to get Reaction; drugs and ware are pretty much the only way to do that sides from magic, however.

Second; your god is Money. Max that shit out at chargen. That probably means you'll end up playing either an Elf or a Human. Hope you're fine with that.

Third - you can have a lot of drones, and you are the king of providing vision to your team. Make sure everyone has image links and so does your drones and you. You're vision, while the decker is communications.

Fourth - most drones suck ass for combat. Only the large ones are good. The flipside to this is that you can put them in situations you wouldn't want a human in.

Some Riggers play debuff machines by having drones with grenade launchers and LMGs, while other play as the APC guy. What is important to know is that if you're playing a Rigger in a Pink Mohawk campaign, your Street Sam is a tank (in the RPG sense) and you are the tank (in the vehicle sense). Try ramming your car into buildings and driving around with turrets on top to blast punks, cops, whatever.

I have no idea how to play a Rigger in a Black Trenchcoat campaign. I guess you'd just be vision guy again.

Hire some gangers with some drugs or money or sex and have them ride around on your car(s). Pic related should be your end game goal.

>should one seek to keep in mind?
Vehicles/Drones cost money. A fucking hell of a lot of money.

>Races, metatypes, qualities, gear to keep in mind?
Race/Metatype doesn't really matter that much, and the gear will depend on how exactly you intend to play your character. A wheelman has all advantage to take a control rig implant that makes him one hell of a lot of a better pilot when he jumps in; whereas a rigger that uses his drone as mobile support whe he does something in person can do entirely without.

>At street level
You'll be severely hampered by the lack of money at street level. Partner with the hacker to "acquire" gear.

>normal char-gen
Don't try to be both the wheelman and the droid's army commander at the same time. Pick your poison and stick to it at first, developing the other during gameplay if you really want.

So on the subject of riggers: they need to have high agi for gunnery, high rea for vehicle tests, and high log and will for ewar and feedback. Worse yet, these have to be natural stats because VR rigging doesn't use ware stats.

How the fuck do you deal with MAD?

I'm loving just about everything concerning this post. I'd ask if there are any drones in particular that stand out for being amazing, or augmentations in particular. The idea of being a roaming, highly mobile tank tickles me pink. I think I'll go more wheelman to start, shoving my vehicle in places people only dream about. Then eventually establish my fortified APC as the launching bay for my drones.

What this guy is asking.

If it's a MAD scanner, ram through it like I said in Other than that, you should probably have a decker for the ewar. If you don't have one and your DM didn't give you an NPC to hand-wave that shit and still pulls ewar on you he's probably a dick.

Other than that, you can let the guns fire autonomously while you're driving - or have your combat guys shoot from inside/outside the vehicle.

Also to this guy is right about the street level rigger thing. Pair up with the decker to just hijack shit. Get a dump-truck.

Depends on if you wanna play a passive Sam or an active Sam. There are pros and cons to either. I'll post a little more later.

I actually have trouble understanding how Autosoft works. It just finds and shoots targets without your active discretion?

>they need to have high agi for gunnery

Not necessarily. Talk rigger rules through with your GM and figure out how he handles gunnery while jumped into the vehicle: infamously, SR5's core book says that a rigger jumped into his vehicle uses AGI for gunnery tests in one section, and then uses LOG in a later example. In spite of gunnery being a rigger's core means of attacking in many cases, Catalyst has never issued an errata on this, never given a straight answer to questions regarding it, and never addressed the largest point of confusion regarding riggers in the book literally dedicated to riggers. Even the SR Missions guys, who are ostensibly affiliated with Catalyst in an official capacity, have been forced to issue their own house-ruling on the matter in the absence of any clear ruling from the SR writing team.

You might not need to worry too much about your AGI if you plan to fight primarily through drones and vehicles you have jumped into, based on your GM's rulings.

>Is there any real reason for the team's hitter to go cyber instead of bio if you want to play a team of "professionals?"

Some cyberware simply don't have a bioware equivalent. (Looking at you, datajack and smartlink.) Plus, there's always the question of cost. Simply put, but not everyone can afford the top-notch bioware.

>Your disguise options become limited to "bodyguard" in a lot of situations where you can be expected to pass a checkpoint.

This is less hampering han you think. Remember that in the Sixth World, "extraction" of the person you need (whether gone or working for you instead of the opposition) is a valid business model. Anyone slightly rich/known/important showing up with a bodyguard in tow won't raise eyebrows like it would in our world. It's kinda expected.

Autosoft = Skill for a drone, with a rank equal to the rating.

For instance, you try to shoot something with an AK, you roll AGI + Automatics. The drone rolls PILOT + Targeting. (There are a couple of subtleties here if the drone is modded and whether you are using a RCC or not, but that's the general idea.)

Thanks CGL. So you can go full decker, and use your brain power to shoot, or become a back up shooter because agi is now a main stat.

So if I read the VR rules correctly, 'ware doesnt affect VR stats? Does this apply for cyberware only? I cant see why a cerebral booster wouldnt work, and thus, synaptic boosters. What about reaction enhancers?

Multiple attribute deficiency

Any books with good details about the Balkans? Places, people etc. Best I could find at first glance was the Sarajevo stuff in Feral Cities.

>Some cyberware simply don't have a bioware equivalent. (Looking at you, datajack and smartlink.) Plus, there's always the question of cost. Simply put, but not everyone can afford the top-notch bioware.

I should have specified this, yes: a Biosam is likely to still have a datajack and cybereyes, since these are ubiquitous technologies in the sixth world not likely to raise an eyebrow at a security checkpoint. I'm referring more specifically to the things that make up a Street Sam's combat arsenal, in this case.

>
This is less hampering han you think. Remember that in the Sixth World, "extraction" of the person you need (whether gone or working for you instead of the opposition) is a valid business model. Anyone slightly rich/known/important showing up with a bodyguard in tow won't raise eyebrows like it would in our world. It's kinda expected.

This is also true, and it's been one of the primary workarounds we've had for this issue when it's cropped up. Since our Street Samurai has no Forbidden-grade gear, in a lot of situations that require social infiltration we've had our Face pose as someone in a position that would require a personal bodyguard and brought the Street Sam in to fill that role.

What I'm referring to is the difficulty this character might face in more general situations: if the team wants to infiltrate a building by posing as the plumbing, the electricians, the server maintenance crew, or any of the other standard excuses for shadowrunners to be escorted somewhere important, you're suddenly dealing with the issues that arise when the desk clerk starts asking why the computer repairman has a body full of almost military-grade combat gear. Does the hitter wait outside until things get hot? Do you now have to account for a means to sneak them though the back? How much of an active liability does someone become by going the chrome route, rather than the bio route, and does this create a disparity between the playstyles?

Alright, so drones use your piloting skill+autosoft to shoot things. I think I got it.

I'd just like to pint this out; look up the rules for MAD scanners again. It takes multiple hits above the threshold to identify what the cyberware actually is/does besides "this guy has a synthetic cyberarm". Not only that, but the threshold increases if you have large amounts of cyber; getting like 4 pieces of restricted cyber and a couple non-obvious forbidden is actually a good way to conceal them. Even if you don't have any alphaware that's a threshold of 4 their scanner has to get.

Nope, drones use THEIR Pilot rating as their attribute. Your piloting skill is used for manually controlling other vehicles and drones.

Alright, that makes more sense. So their pilot rating, and autosoft to fire. This is good stuff to know before I actually play.

Oi, chummers. Are there options in 5e to install some of the cyberware upgrades (sensors, strength enhancements, etc.) into a suit of armor?

In other words, what's the best way to portray Tony Stark in Shadowrun?

>Are there options in 5e to install some of the cyberware upgrades (sensors, strength enhancements, etc.) into a suit of armor?

Run & Gun pg. 87 for what can be installed.

>what's the best way to portray Tony Stark in Shadowrun?

RAW? None.

If your GM is willing to have fun? Rigger Cocoon inside a big custom humanoid Drone chassis.

Uhhh...

It may be two books. I don't know if there's a "Shadows of Europe" but Shadows of Asia covers Turkey pretty well.

Thing is, Shadowrun's setting is REALLY easy to just kinda make shit up as you go along or to simple create your own within the world.

But if you wanna set a game in Istanbul, it's now called Constantinople (again), and it's essentially a city state. Think Berlin and Denver, but not as anarchic. Nothing really is known about it, so you can just go friggin' wild.

Now if you're just reading to learn about lore, then you'll want to head back to previous editions. From what I recall, not a lot of Europe is really fleshed out, but then again I just simply may not have read anything about it...

Check the trove, chummer.

If you want ideas for stuff in Europe, you could always take inspiration from Cyberpunk 2020's Eurosource book.

Could be that I completely misremember this, but I think the book called War had some info on eastern european countries. Not sure though.

Best way to avoid MAD? Go A or B on attributes. But as a rigger you'll most likely be going A on Resources, so figure out if you want skills or attributes more. Or play sum to 10.

The best part about playing a mundane is the fact that you can just chrome yourself out. Get ware (either Cyber or Bio) to buff up your agility and reaction. The sad part is you won't reasonably be able to do ewar...

But, ewar is still primarily a deckers/technos(sorta) job. Let them do it. Shadowrun is not really a game where you can have a guy that does everything. If you try, you'll just spread yourself too thin and wind up bad at everything.

If you don't have a decker, try to hire an NPC or something. If your DM keeps fucking you over with an enemy decker and you don't have one, the NPC should help out. And; if the DM decides to not let you have party NPC, but still throws things at you that you can't technically counter, then he's a dick.

>How much of an active liability does someone become by going the chrome route

The decker's/technomancer's job is just a tad more intense. But unless the group plans to get in "naked", you'll have to smuggle the hardware past security anyway.

Yes, it is reductive to consider Slice'n'Dice Murderman as hardware when he's the one to pull the team's collective cojones out of the fire when one of the others fail, but yeah...

>In other words, what's the best way to portray Tony Stark in Shadowrun?
4e, Spy Games, Superficial Cyberware. 10% of the cost, some loss of functionality. Ask your GM nicely about adding the wingsuit rockets.

So if nearly every tank in Shadowrun is a hovertank, where the hell are my AVs?

Slice'n'Dice tends to be a liability at all other times.

I'm looking for safehouse/home ideas for a game, I will figuratively suck your dick if you tell me about your safehouse.

There is a shadows of europe. It's a 3rd edition book. It's in the files in the OP

Well, wheels are a ton cheaper then hover anything.

Hmm...

>red-scare era bunker
>one of the many slums
>classical bookcase door
>crazy earls attic. just dont ask about the ducks
>coffin hotel
>scrapyard
>dear old mom and pop

>red-scare era bunker

So..what you're saying is I should get them to set up shop in not-Cheyenne Mountain?

After you kick out the not-UCAS, sure

But I meant more like those personal bunkers. STuff like apocalipse preppers might have.

Oooh yeah those would make some damn good hideouts with a few alterations.

>shoehorned metaplot that serve only to ruin the Matrix further
This. I already couldn't stand the Otaku. TM's were just too fucking much.

Maybe if the line editor was doing his job instead of trying to be a novelist.

>Catalyst has never issued an errata on this, never given a straight answer to questions regarding it, and never addressed the largest point of confusion regarding riggers in the book literally dedicated to riggers. Even the SR Missions guys, who are ostensibly affiliated with Catalyst in an official capacity, have been forced to issue their own house-ruling on the matter in the absence of any clear ruling from the SR writing team.
That would require CGL to admit their editorial team is collecting paychecks for doing nothing.

>collecting paychecks for doing nothing.
*fabricating paychecks
no disrespect to you bro

THIS.
MAD isn't as effective as most people think.

>So, technomancers

The concept of "mages" that can somehow work their magic in the virtual world instead of the physical one is a good one.

The execution is... Abysmal! (And it's an euphemism.)

>kick out the SDF
FTFY

It's also what happens when your entire game design staff are "writers" and not stats guys like most game companies have.

>The UCAS reinstate the Stargate Program

I'd play that game.

>The concept of "mages" that can somehow work their magic in the virtual world instead of the physical one is a good one.
No, it's actually the fluff that sucks. It's a dumb idea.

The fluff you hate so much is part of the "execution" thing, you know.

Going to play my first 5e game, and my first Shadowrun game in quite a while, soon. How's this sound for the basics of a mage concept?

I used to be a Shadowrunner. I am one, but I used to be one too. I actually got out of it, once - I hit a big haul, made a shitload of money, and retired to a soft, easy life. But even then, in my heart, I was a child of . I mean, don't get me wrong, I tried taking it easy, but it put me on edge in a way Running never did. The drudgery of it, the blandness of helping people with "love potions" and minor exorcisms...I hated it. It was nothing like the high-octane thrill of Running, knowing my life was on the line with every motion I took. I tried rock climbing, I tried adventure trids, I even tried Urban Brawl for a little while! I sank SO much nuyen just trying to recapture the feeling. But in the end, nothing beats the real deal, does it? I had to go back. It's where I belong. Sure, I've gone a little soft, but I'll get the hang of it again soon, I'm sure.

Was money your first priority? If so that sounds fine to me.

Having never done a mage or 5e before, i was thinking Magic, then Money, then Stats, then Skills, then Metatype. Also, if I'm reading this correctly, humans can never have less than 3 Edge, because they get 2 for being human and 1 at the lowest level of metatype?

I was assuming you'd go money first because you had the "big haul" aspect of your backstory, but go whatever. And yeah, humans are the literal edgelords. Anyone who doesn't go human will quickly get jealous of you fudging your rolls.

Well, my hatred of the fluff precludes the execution, so there's no need to acknowledge it.

Well, this is also my first time playing a mage ever. I thought having high Magic stat was the most important thing you could do?

And your drain stats, and your Spellcasting skill.

To be best at doing magic, yes. But utility can always be put in something secondary.

You don't need a priority A in magic to have high magic stats. Special metatype points can go into Magic if needed, not only Edge.

And I thought Mages could get by without money to a large degree? I can easily downplay the 'big haul' aspect and drop it to 'enough tor retire comfortably', and then have spent the cash down to C-D level.

They don't. But you can invest in more burners, fake SINS, etc. Basically be a logistics guy.

Foci. Lots and lots of foci.

They can. The barest minimum a mage needs at chargen is:
- A comlink
- A fake SIN with licenses
- A gun, just not to look like a mage
- An armored jacket

There's one hell of a lot more that is nice to have (anyone said Power Focus?), but they can do without on the first run and be pretty efficient anyway and save up to buy it later.

>races and shit
You want high reaction, or high logic if your GM is one of those guys who makes you use log when you're in VR. Race choice should be based on what can get you that. Do note that you will have to pay more for vehicles if you're a weird metatype like a pixie or a centaur. On the plus side, ain't nobody carjacking a pixie rigger's car.
>gear
For vehicle riggers, get a car with really high body and rivet as much armor plating to it as you can. You will also need a piece of headware whose name I can't remember.
For drone riggers, you need an RCC and a bunch of rotodrones with the cheapest guns you can buy taped on.
>normal chargen
Take resources A.
>street level chargen
Don't.

>2080
>He doesn't even both Street Level and Street Scum, omae.

>why the computer repairman has a body full of almost military-grade combat gear.
Look, larry doesn't like to talk about his time in the military. Best to just let it lie.
RV with the aquatic(submersible) modification. I figure if I piss off someone who has depth charges, I deserve to die.

is this a 5e thing? Cause from what I see in 4e additional ware doesn't increase the threshold, it gives the scanner a DPM

Yeah it's a 5e thing; I really need to stop just automatically assuming people are talking about 5e.

Nah it's usually 5e that's talked about here. There are simply a lot of things that got changed between the editions

That's a really nifty signature.
The waifu is nice too I guess.

Hey, can I get you guys to test out something for me? The code for calculating karma costs with special attributes and essence loss has been janky for a while now but I think I've sorted it. I need people to test it with their characters and confirm my shitty math skills though.
my.mixtape.moe/mricck.zip

Personally, I really like technomancers in the concept, though the mechanics could use work. The only thing I don't like is when they start pushing the Foundation is Magic angle.

I love the idea that 100 years of interconnected computer usage has built a strange darknet of erratic data, one that lives on beneath the infrastructure the normies use everyday like the Chicago Underground. But I really, REALLY don't like it when they start saying, "ooh, maybe it's all just magic." Fuck off with that, let there be cool computer things without shoehorning mana into everything.

>I'd ask if there are any drones in particular that stand out for being amazing

The MCT Rotodrone is very well regarded because it's highly customizable; easy to slap an assault rifle on a bunch of them, or tune up a couple for a special job.

Personally, I also really like Flying Eyes and Duelists. The former because they're really easy to sneak into places, can fly, and hide in corners easily to give you LOS on everything. The latter because sword robots are cool, and it's pretty uncommon for corpsec to have any melee training of note, so if you close you win.

War! was all about the Azt-Am War, though it did have a section where it quickly ran through a few global flashpoints. Nothing in detail about the Balkans, iirc.

>UCAS notes that Wuxing and other megas are investing in metaplanar exploration

>decide they need to secure sites in 'nearby' metaplanes for national security

>giant ritual circle beneath a mountain that they funnel shadowrunners through

>Shadowrun becomes Eclipse Phase: Gatecrashing - NOW WITH MAGIC

I would straight up pay the guys who owned that shit to drive my war-rig through an interplanar portal to lead massive raids on other planes. They wouldn't even need to pay me, just let me loot shit.

Who's the worst "bad guy" group in Shadowrun? Not the corps, but the ones doing actual evil shit for the sake of it?
Winternight blew up the Panama Canal and had a hand in the crash 2.0 but that's it? Bug spirits nearly took over several cities.
Humanis and Alamos 20k are jokes.

The Azzies get my vote, personally.

I think Tantamous or whatever they're called grow people with extra organs to feed ghouls. They also accept pretty much any organs you can kidnap.

Any mage that uses Turn to Goo.

Other than that, Azzies. Blood magic is straight up some evil shit.

Alamos, Winternight, Human Nation, Black Lodge, and a couple others are all, by the book, threats that vary in importance from game to game, since that was the ruling given by the Threats books that they were detailed in. Alamos CAN be a joke, but they can also be a terrorist group with enough clout in CAS and UCAS governmental organizations to have serious designs at a coup to overthrow one of the above.

The producers of "Neil, the Orc barbarian" and "Karl Kombatmage"

>Humanis and Alamos 20k are jokes.

Kids today, no respect for the Night of Rage.

Right.

whats is the magic/resonance number in the priority table related to? Is it the max you can have or is it your current number?

Also how does adding special attributes into magic/resonance work?

>Couldn't even finish the job
Jokes.

Black Lodge. They're the Sixth World Illuminati.

Alternatively, the Great Dragons. Vauclair had a point when he said they wanted to carve up the world between them.

But a naive one. If he were as enlightened as he thought, he'd know that they already have.

That is what you start with. You can then divide the number between brackets next to your race choice in the metatype column to either boost Magic/Resonance up to 6 (7 if you take the required quality) or add to your Edge.

You can have a max of 6 mag/res at chargen, barring the Exceptional Attribute quality. The number is what your current score is- if it says you have 4 magic, you have 4 magic. You can add special points, one for one, to increase your magic or resonance up to 6.

Depends on the dragon.

Yo /srg/! We finished our campaign earlier this month and we're gonna run some one-shots to tie up a few NPC quest lines we left and our GM is letting us play (and I quote) "whatever you want as long as it's technically legal".

So for the virtue of pure shits and giggles, what's the most broken build you've ever successfully brought to the table? GM knows we're gonna be total munchkins about this and I don't wanna disappoint.

Dunkelzahn apologist

Playing for my first time this Sunday, very excite!

I made some artwork for all of our characters in preparation. Apparently the campaign is going to take place on a massive cruise ship in orbit around earth (think Wall-E)

Here is our face with a dip into stealth, the ex-Mr. Johnson wannabe. He's a coward who got himself locked into an internal office conflict that set in motion his fall from wealth & grace.

Our muscle, an ex-cop who lost everything he cares about. Now a tormented man, he is driven by anger, hate, aspiring only to be good at killing people.

Allow me to introduce Horror Show.

Max out body, willpower, and agility. Reaction and Int are secondaries. Put Log and Cha to one. You're playing a horror movie villain, after all.

Get as many cyberware and armor mods as you can get. Get a pain editor. GET A PAIN EDITOR. That is /very/ important. Get the heaviest armor you can get, and then buy an ash arms monofilament chainsaw and get the skills to use it. Get running (sprinting) as well, so you can chase people.

Become a walking horror movie. Speak in grunts and screams, take drugs, smell your enemies fear.

Metatype is kinda irrelevant, but the higher the body the better. If you do this build right, you can have somewhere near 40 damage soak dice at chargen, and the ability to slash people for 12p/-8AP.

...and our two bit hacker. A punk looking to for some extra dough to pay off the local gang whom he owes.